Lost in the Jungle
by Mary Allen
Summary: After an explosion, Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis are left injured for their own in the jungle, with no way to contact the rest of The Team, strugling to stay alive and quickly loosing hope for their dying red headed teammate.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don´t own Young Justice, all the respective rights belong to DC Comics.

_Secret Cadmus base in South Africa_

The mission was a success. Yesterday, Batman discovered another hidden Cadmus base, this one in South Africa.The Team just sneaked inside, cuffed the scientists that were working there, retrived the hostages and downloaded all files and sent it to Batman for further investigation.

Right now, the 5 scientists were standing before the bioship, with Aqualad guarding them. Miss Martian and Superboy were inside the bioship, calming the hostages and preparing it for the long flight to Mount Justice. Or maybe they were just doing something else.

Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis were standing in silence on the other side of the base.

"There is something bothering me about this mission," Robin finally said. "I mean, it´s Cadmus, right? Always super hightech, with all those security systems, alarms and armed guards? Why does it feels to me that this was almost too easy?

"Dude, chill out" Kid Flash started, in his typical manner. "All the missions doesn´t have to be hard. Anyway, this is South Africa, why would Cadmus have an important facility here?" Hetoucheda light bruise on his forehead. "Hey, lets get something to eat, I´m starving like hell! I don´t even have enough energy to heal this little wound".

"How did you even get that? We didn´t have a fight," Robin asked, with amused look on his face.

"Um, you know, I´m always ahead of you, and one of the scientist took me by surprise with a dining tray. Would you believe that?" Wally quickly mumbled, his eyes looking anywhere else than to Robin´s domino masque.

Artemis, who stood silent all the time and was watching the jungle far away under their feet through the giant window, suddenly turned to them. "No they didn´t! I saw you ran to a glass counter! Idiot." Although her voice sounded like always, as if she was mocking Wally, but Robin could see little sparks of amusement deep in her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever," replied the redhead, suddenly preoccupied with watching M´gann and Conner walking out of the bioship, holding their hands.

All of sudden, the speedster could see as one of the scientists got his hands out of the handcuffs and pressed a switch he´d been hiding all the time and wall of flames busted out in the middle of the room, effectively cutting the three heroes out of the bioship and the rest of their team.

XXX

_Other side of the room_

Superboy watched in horror as the flames spread from the sides of the room to the middle, hiding his three teammates from his sight.

M´gann slightly staggered, as the Martians were vulnerable to fire. Superboy quickly strengthened his grip on her, but she just said, with eyes full of fear: "I´m fine, the fire is not close enough to hurt me, but I think it´s blocking my telepathy. Leave me here, go help Kaldur." The clone nodded shortly before storming of to the wall of fire.

Kaldur was standing there with helpless look on his face. His hand was pressed to his ear. He welcomed the cloned with troubled look.

"The comm links are jammed. And I can´t see through that fire. But maybe you could get through."

He stepped aside, his fishy green eyes watching the Kryptonians furious face.

Conner was almost in the flames, when he felt his hand being burned. He yanked with his hand away, confusedly looking at it. He felt sharp, but not agonizing pain and smelled charred fabric of his T-shirt.

"I–I don´t understand," his confused eyes looked at his hand and then at the Atlantean. "This never happened."

"Of course you can´t pass through that fire," answered the one scientist that pressed the button switch with an evil frown on his face. "We modified the fire so its wavelength matches the red sun rays. You don´t have any powers right now."

His typical, furious expression settled itself on Superboy´s face. But before Conner could jump on the scientist and wipe the smirk out of his face, he revealed another switch in his other hand and pressed the button.

This one was linked with explosives set on the other side of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

_Other side of the room, simultaneously____with the explosion_

Before Robin or Artemis could even realize, that there has been any explosion, Kid Flash had already both clutched tightly in his hands, each of them in one, and was circling around the place, trying to find an exit.

He couldn´t jump through the wall of flames, because his speed would cause the fire to come after him, dragging it even closer to Miss Martian. Also, with the weight of his two teammates resting on his shoulders, he couldn´t run at his top speed, anyway.

He could already feel the heatwave coming for him._ "Can´t let it get past me. We were to close to the epicenter of the explosion, it would __burn__ us to ash. __And I must __avoid__ to the __kinetic__ wave too."_

Millions of equations were rushing through his head, but he none was able to get them out of this hell.

He could hear his best friend shouting something at him, but at his accelerated perception, he wasn´t able to catch the words. He slowed down for a while.

"W-i-n-d-o-w! C-a-n-o-n-b-a-l-l u-s t-h-r-o-u-g-h t-h-e w-i-n-d-o-w!" Understanding lighted the speedsters face. He accelerated himself again, now being mere inches from the heatwave.

"_This is going to hurt like hell."_ This thought flashed through his head, before his body crashed to the window, breaking it to thousands of tiny pieces, before they started to fall to the jungle several feet under them.

Both Robin and Artemis could here Wally´s hiss of pain when the heatwave slicked his back.

Then, the three were falling into the night.

XXX

_Back with Aqualad, Superboy and Miss Martian_

The heatwave threw them at the wall. As they were flying through the air, Superboy could see the scientist´s skin peeling off, revealing cold metal underneath. Then, with evil smirk still crossing their faces, even the metal melted, and the switch buttons fell to the ground, only to be dissolved in the fire too.

The clone quickly threw himself in front of the Martian and Atlantean. He wasn´t in close proximity of the modified fire, so his powers started to kick in again. What would cause third degree burns to normal person felt like pleasant heat on his back.

He held both of them even tighter, his back facing to the epicenter of the explosion, dividing the fire and heat blast into two, not letting even the smallest flame touch them.

Finally, the furious hell stopped. Miss Martian was lying unconscious in his hands, although she didn´t seem to be injured by the fire. Aqualad was leaning on a wall, panting heavily and sweat pouring down his face. Atlanteans and fire also didn´t get along.

He immediately looked to where his friends were just a minute ago, but couldn´t see through all the smoke.

Superboy looked back at his two team-mates. "You OK?" he asked in his detached style, but Aqulad could see concern in his eyes.

"I´ll manage. Take Miss M back to the bioship, I will operate it back to Happy Harbor to return the hostages back to their homes."

"But-" Superboy was cut of with sign of Aqualad´s hand. "I know." He had deep, sad look. "I want to look for them too, but innocent people are always our priority, whether we like it or not. They are tough, they´ll handle themselves. They had to get out somehow. I can´t see any bodies from here. We will come back for them, I promise."

Aqualad said this with heavy heart, knowing that he must appear strong in front of others.

After the clone quickly examined the two, assuring they were alright, and then gently carried Miss Martian back to the bio-ship, with Aqualad limping behind him.

He strapped M´gann to the passenger seat, while examining the little room full of scared faces. Everyone was quiet, worrying that every little sound could push the clone to anger. They knew what´s going on, and felt kind of guilty that they must save them and not their teammates. But they had families also, worried sick for them.

Aqualad took the pilot seat, his hands resting on the two white controlling spheres. He concentrated, and the ship quietly fly out off the base.

He didn´t flew of immediately, and took a while to overfly the big area under where was the giant window, but still couldn´t see any sign of his friends.

"_Good luck_," he though guilty, as he let the ship to pick up height, accelerated and let home.

XXX

Wally´s accelerated mind tried to automatically find any possibility, that would lead them of this mess. For him, it looked like if he was falling in slow motion. He saw his friend´s screaming, but didn´t hear them over the hell above their heads. He could feel his burned back pulsing with pain.

"_If I would be alone, I would probably could make twisters with my hands and stop myself. But with these two..."_ Doubts flashed (no pun intended) through his mind. _"I could still try it. __Definitely__ better than free fall."_

With no hesitation, he shoved Artemis to his right hand next to Dick, and started rotating his left arm quicker than anyone could comprehend.

If he would be alone, It really could have worked. But not when he has using only one hand, and had weight of two people in his second hand.

He was so focused on spinning his arm, that when he finally realized he was just two feet above the solid ground, it was already too late. He had just enough time to stick his shocked friends above him and braced for the impact.

His mind suddenly accelerated itself even more, and to the speedster it could appear that they were hanging in the air, painfully aware of every single tiny detail, like Artemis´s long hair in his mouth, sharp smell of scorched clothes and skin and Robin´s death grip on his wrist.

Then, the reality speed up again, and their frail bodies collided with the ground.

Wally felt incredibly shard, unbearable pain in his left shoulder and forehead. Not that the rest of his body didn´t ache, but nothing was as bad as these two. He could feel and hear cracking of bones.

Before everything went dark, one last thought passed through his mind. _"__Fuck, I´m going to be late to dinner."_


	3. Chapter 3

Coincidence is a bitch.

Cadmus hired people for a considerable amount of money to build the base in South Africa. Of course, if they would have spilled even just one word about its existence, they and their families would have disappeared from the surface of the Earth.

One of the workers happened to like birds, the more exotic the better. So, before he moved undercover into that specific part of South Africa, he bought a small pack of luxurious bamboo seeds produced specifically as seeds for birds.

One day, during lunch break, he took his lunch with him. He sat in front of the construction site with his lunch in one hand, bamboo birdseed in another, opened the little sack and threw few seeds on the ground.

Almost immediately, a few birds flew to the ground. They were shining with all imaginable colors, from parrots to sunbirds, all crowded before the worker, who was smiling happily as he was slowly throwing them more seeds.

But none of this was important. The thing that mattered was the only seed that survived, trampled down with furious little bird feet. It thrived inside the soil.

Eventually, the workers left and just the scientists stayed. The little seed was slowly coaxed to life by the rich soil, and it began to grow. After a few days, it was already high, about one foot, and it had a strong, smooth stem.

As I said, coincidence is a bitch. Guess on what Wally fell that fateful night?

XXX

**Below the secret Cadmus base in South Africa**

Artemis felt consciousness creeping somewhere on the edges of her mind. She didn't want to wake up yet, because with the consciousness also came the pain.

But why would I feel pain? What happened to me? These dim thoughts were passing through her clouded mind.

Then images came rushing through her head as she suddenly realized what had happened. Her eyes snapped open and she immediately regretted it, as waves of pain flooded through her body. She painfully pushed herself into sitting position.

The archer quickly examined her wounds, but except for a dislocated right shoulder, which she expertly popped back with a wince, and a few minor cuts and bruises, she seemed fine.

As more memories returned to her mind, her eyes widened in shock as she recalled the two of her teammates that were previously with her.

Oh my god! What happened to Robin and Kid Flash?

She would never admit it, especially not in front of the speedster, but she was worried about him. She hastily looked around, only to find the limp figure of Robin laying just a few meters from her.

She moved to him as quickly as her aching body allowed her, and slowly turned him on his back. The whites on his mask were barely visible. The archer remembered the first thing that her mother taught her when she was starting the hero business - her medical training.

She quickly examined him, just finding a bruised ankle and a flesh wound on his left cheek.

"A - Artemis?" she almost jumped with joy when she heard his voice. She quickly leaned to him.

"I am here Robin," she said, helping him to sit up.

"What happened?" asked the Boy Wonder, and then the whites of his mask widened as he was struck by sudden realization. "Oh."

"Where's Wally?" he finally asked when he was done recollecting his memories.

"I don't know, I just woke up and then I find you lying here and then you woke up and-"

"Artemis, stop panicking," Robin said in calm voice.

"I know, I'm just..."

"Worried about Wally?" Robin finished the sentence for her.

She looked to him with an offended look. In the Team, she was known for turning Wally down whenever he tried to flirt with her. Which was all the time.

Then her expression softened and she nodded a quiet yes.

"Fine, then let's find him," said Robin after a moment of silence, as he tried to stand up. He slowly shifted his weight to his bruised ankle.

"Are you OK?" asked Artemis as she noticed the almost imperceptible grimace of pain on his face.

"I'll live," he simply replied, taking a few cautious steps. "You go look over there, and I'll go in the opposite direction. "

Artemis was glad she could finally do something. She quickly darted away and promptly started searching over the place that Robin showed her.

She was looking for Wally for what seemed to her like a couple of minutes, but was actually only thirty seconds until she heard Robin's voice, "Found him!"

The blonde quickly changed her direction and ran towards where she heard his voice.

She came to a sudden stop before the scene that was in front of her. She saw Robin kneeling next to Kid Flash and pulling his body from what seemed to be a stick. Blood was everywhere.

XXX

**In the bioship, above the Atlantic ocean**

M'gann was sobbing into Conner's shoulder. Due to her mental link with the ship, every time she sobbed, the ship trembled as if experiencing slight turbulence.

All the hostages were sitting quietly at the back of the ship, not daring to speak a single word because of their close proximity to Superboy and his angry glares. He would hear them anyway, even if they were kilometers away.

They were feeling guilty that they were saved. They wouldn't under normal circumstances, but they all saw what happened back at the base. Sure, most of them had families and couldn't wait to see them, but now, they were all feeling sorry for the heroes that saved them, but had to pay the ultimate price.

Suddenly, a little girl rose and slowly walked to the sobbing M'gann. The Martian looked at her with tears flowing down from her eyes.

Without any word, the girl just took her hand, and Miss Martian lifted her and let her sit on her lap. The little girl hugged her closely, and tears started to flood her eyes too.

Soon, nobody's eyes were entirely dry. Even Superboy, although he would never admit it, was blinking rapidly.

This sombre mood lasted the entire rest of the flight.


	4. Chapter 4

_Previously: She came to a sudden stop before the scene that was in front of her. She saw Robin kneeling next to Kid Flash and pulling his body from what seemed to be a stick. Blood was everywhere._

**South Africa, below the now decimated Cadmus base**

Robin's usual caring spirit was immediately replaced by a cold, unfeeling mood that Batman had taught him to use in cases like this, to prevent feelings from overflowing him. He started to examine Kid Flash for injuries that weren't visible to the naked eye.

Artemis was kneeling next to Robin, her eyes wide, not being able to think about anything else than how haughtily she was always treating him. And now I might never be able to speak to him again.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She didn't want to appear weak in front of Robin, so she bit her tongue and hold them back.

The speedster was incredibly pale, practically white in contrast with his red hair. It almost seemed to be shining in the light of the full moon.

"How is he?" she finally asked after a few minutes, to distract herself from her grim thoughts.

"Bad," came the simple reply. "He has three broken ribs and a fractured right thigh bone. Bruises all over his body and that pierced shoulder. He lost a lot of blood, and can't heal himself right now because he doesn't have the necessary amount of energy."

Without hesitation, Robin pulled a bandage from his utility belt and gently started to wrap it around Kid Flash's torso. He stopped for a while to lightly lift Kid Flash's arms to bandage the other side of his wound when his eyes saw something beneath the other boy's hair.

He carefully moved his fingers along the gash that he had noticed. A gloomy expression settled itself on his already darkened face as he took his hand away and saw that his fingers were covered in blood.

He suddenly drew a little flashlight, forced open one of the redhead's eyelids and shined the light on it. He did the same with the other eye. Artemis watched him with concern.

"Shit." Artemis tensed as shivers were sent down her spine. Robin never swore. This had to be really bad.

"Shit's not good," she tried to reply in her normal strong voice, but a tiny childish sounding voice came out of her. If they weren't in this situation, she would have mentally slapped herself.

"No, it isn't. He has a severe concussion. Even if we survive this, there is a chance he might never wake up..."

Artemis could hear the worry in Robins voice overpowering his unfeeling tone. After all, Wally was his best friend. She felt her heart sinking to somewhere in her stomach, with a heavy feeling replacing it.

"What do we d-"

"Shh!" Robin pushed her face to the ground and lied down next to her. She once again felt her pain flare up from her shoulder and felt it slip back out, but didn't let a hiss of pain escape her lips.

She tried to breathe as silently as possible, but it was almost unfeasible with Wally lying just a few centimeters beside her. She wasn't hearing anything and wanted to get up, but Robin pressed her down again.

Artemis focused on her hearing and blocked out the noises of the jungle. After a while, she heard a soft, almost imperceptible beeping.

The archer slightly lifted her head, and with her peripheral vision scanned the place from where she heard the sound. She saw a tiny red light floating in mid-air. Then it split into two. She turned her head back to Robin.

"What are those?" she asked voicelessly, depending on Robin's knowledge of reading lips.

"Cadmus drones," he replied silently. "I think they are searching for us."

The blonde swallowed a sarcastic retort. "What now?"

"We obviously cannot stay here. We have to go further into the jungle. If they found no bodies, they will know we hid somewhere and will search for us, therefore we must get as far as possible from here. I'll carry Wally. When I tell you, stand up and go to the trees on our left"

"Fine."

They waited a few minutes for the drones to pass. Instead, they were coming closer and closer to the three heroes. Their work was silent and systematic. Finally, they turned into a different direction and started to search another area.

Robin tapped her on her shoulder - the silent command.

The archer silently rose with Robin at her side. She felt another pulse of pain going through her shoulder, but she ignored it. There weren't any time for it now. There were other problems to be concerned about now.

Robin slowly picked up Kid Flash and gently placed him on his back. Wally's right leg was hanging at a weird angle. Robin slightly stumbled under his weight, but otherwise didn't show any signs of discomfort.

Before the drones could turn towards them again, they were already hidden behind the trees.

Robin gently placed Kid Flash on the ground, making sure he doesn't put him on one of his many fractures and possibly worsen his injuries, before turning to Artemis.

"Your shoulder," he said, pointing at it. "I can put it back?"

"Do it," the archer said simply, clamping her teeth together and looking to the other side.

Robin softly clutched her hand. "Okay, when I count to three, I will put it back into the hollow. Are you ready?"

The blonde silently nodded, gritting her teeth harder to stop from telling him to just get on with it.

"Fine, I'm doing it on three. One-"

Without finishing the countdown, Robin did a smooth circular movement and a muffled crack could be heard as her shoulder slipped back into its normal position. Artemis was so taken by surprise she didn't even realized what he did until it was over.

"You little..," Artemis trailed off, before grasping that she really didn't have anything to complain about. "Thank you," she finally said and smiled to him. It was small, shaky and unsure but still, it was a smile.

"You're welcome." Robin returned the smile, before turning to Kid Flash again. His smile quickly faded.

The redhead was lying there, motionless, too motionless for a speedster. Robin worriedly stared at him for a few moments, before looking back to the archer. He spoke in a quiet, grave voice.

"Artemis, I'm afraid that if some miracle doesn't happen soon, Wally is not going to make it."


	5. Chapter 5

**At Happy Harbor, after the Bioship arrived**

Miss Martian carefully handed the little girl, who was between the hostages in the Cadmus secret base, to her crying mother. The girl sat in her lap throughout the rest of the flight, quietly sobbing into M'gann's shoulder, until she cried herself to sleep.

Her mother was tenderly hugging her to her chest, thanking M'gann with a look of profound relief, before turning her brown, deer-like eyes back to her slowly awakening daughter.

"Shh, I'm here, Hannah," the mother was whispering to her. As she slowly walked away to her husband, Hannah stared at the Martian from over her mother's shoulder, until they were separated by a crowd of people.

With a barely audible sigh, Miss Martian turned to Conner, who was watching the crowd with his indifferent sky blue eyes, looking for any sign of trouble. She stopped a few centimeters before him, took his hand and he finally moved his eyes towards her.

They understood each other so deeply, that they didn't need to communicate with each other to know what the other one was thinking about, not verbally nor telepathically. The clone squeezed her hand and they slowly, hand in hand walked to Aqualad, who was helping the last person, an elderly lady, from the Bioship.

"What now?" asked Miss Martian, when all of the hostages were finally on their way to be returned to their homes and families.

"I have informed the League. They are almost at our location," their leader replied instantly, noticing the angry look that passed over Conner's face.

"Why can't we get them out of there now? We don't even know if they are still alive! Every second could be crucial and we're wasting it by waiting for the League?!" Conner didn't even realize that he was shouting until he saw the scared look on M'gann's face. He tried his best to calm his voice, but he was still speaking very loudly.

"You know as well as I that there were no bodies in the room where the explosion happened. They must have escaped somehow, and the only possible way was through that window, which was pretty high. They aren't invulnerable and if they were okay, they would have contacted us by now. Because they haven't, we must presume that they are not okay and WE MUST GET TO THEM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!" He gave up his effort of calming down somewhere after the first sentence, his voice speeding up and rising again.

"I still have to explain everything to Batman. Robin is his protégé, he has every right to know what happened-" Aqualad was interrupted by a loud bang, as Superboy punched a streetlamp, which was the unlucky object to serve as a channel for his anger. It was easily bent to the ground as if it was a blade of grass.

"Fine. But don't try to hold me back. Once I lay my hands on the one responsible for this..," Once again, he was mentally cursing Lex Luthor for giving his DNA to him, and as a result, stripping him of his flight powers.

Aqualad looked at him, understanding in his eyes. "If only it was so simple," he replied and started walking towards the Bioship, with M'gann floating next to him over the streetlamp hugging the road, and Superboy angrily marching behind them.

XXX

**A few minutes later, in Mount Justice**

_Recognised Flash 04_

Even before the computer finished saying his name, Flash was standing next to Aqualad, and started talking even before his after-images faded.

"What the hell happened there? Where is Kid? Whereistherestofyourteam. Pleasetellmetheyreallrighttheyhavetobealrightor-" Flash was getting more nervous with every picosecond that passed and was now talking so fast and in such a high-pitched voice, that Aqualad couldn't understand a single word.

"Calm down Flash, or you'll vibrate a hole in the ground," came the calm, authoritative voice of Batman as he materialized from the Zeta tube. Then he walked to Aqualad and asked him in his strong voice, emphasizing every word. "Now, tell me, what happened."

Aqualad started to explain how everything ended so badly, Superboy's urgent looks encouraging him to talk faster in order to go save their friends as soon as possible.

When Aqualad got to the part where the explosion separated the team, Batman's jaw tensed and Flash clenched his fists so tightly that his knucklebones could be seen through his skin. They quickly exchanged glances of concern.

Once Aqualad finished, a short silence reigned in the Mountain, whilst Batman quickly analyzed the situation. He started speaking, weighing every word that came out of his mouth.

"The Justice League is in the middle of a mission in space, battling Atrocitus and his Red Lantern Corps. I came here to Earth just to make an antidote against the blood they are spilling. If I don't go back with the antidote, in less than six hours, the League might not be able to handle the threat, the Red Lanterns will take over the planet Okaara, and all of its sixteen billion inhabitants will die. That is something I cannot allow. Once we are done there, I can send you a squad to help you find them. But for now, please excuse me."

Flash was the first one to react. "But Bats, you can't possibly mean that. Don't you-"

Batman pulled Flash towards him by his uniform, threateningly leaning to him and saying to him in a deadly calm voice: "I am completely aware of what I just said. Civilians are the first priority; you of all people should know this after being a hero for so many years. You can´t give up sixteen billion lives to save three. Now let's not waste any more time. We need to make the antidote. Did I make myself perfectly clear?" The speedster looked anywhere else than at Batman's eyes with its infamous glare. Of course, he was right. Batman was always right.

The two League members walked over to the Zeta Tubes, with Flash sending one last apologizing look to the three young heroes, before they were teleported to the Batcave.

Aqualad, Superboy and Miss Martian were staring at the Zeta, hoping that Batman would come back and tell them he was actually joking. But he didn't. Batman never joked.

M'gann's eyes started to fill with tears as she turned to the Atlantean. She spoke with a soft voice, "Batman didn't want to make that decision. I didn't try to read his thoughts, I swear, but all the feelings were just radiating from him. He loves Robin and he feels like he is betraying him now. I don't understand how he can feel like that and act so heartless at the same time."

Aqualad looked at her with understanding. "I know I must seem cruel to say this, but Batman is right. Sometimes you have to abandon your personal feelings for the greater good. I just know that I never want to be placed in the situation where such a decision must be made..." His voice suddenly fills with renewed determination. "Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis have no one but us and their fate is resting on our shoulders. We must not waste any more time. Miss M, prepare the Bioship. We are leaving immediately."


	6. Chapter 6

_Previously: The redhead was lying there, motionless, too motionless for a speedster. Robin worriedly stared at him for a few moments, before looking back to the archer._

_He spoke in a quiet, grave voice. "Artemis, I'm afraid that if some miracle doesn't happen soon, Wally is not going to make it."_

Robin's words hit Artemis like a slap with a dead fish. She knew Wally wasn't in his best condition, but this sounded so unreal... She didn't want to believe it. And yet, it was happening.

We are heroes, she thought. We go down in epic battles, protecting innocent civilians or our loved ones, not bleeding out, forgotten somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

She laid another uneasy look on the unconscious speedster lying in front of her, painfully aware of every single shaky and barely noticeable breath. Artemis was no princess, in her hero job, the possibility of death was on her daily schedule, but this was different.

Robin managed to put his bat poker face on, once again analyzingthe current situation. He weighed every possible course of action, but none of them seemed to perfectly fit. His frown deepened. He turned to Artemis, who was still watching Wally with a look focused on something deep within. Even with the almost neutral look, Robin didn't have to be world's second greatest detective to know what she was thinking about right now.

Artemis was lost in thought. Now that they weren't in any immediate danger and the adrenaline from the run and from the pain constantly shooting out of her dislocated shoulder, wearing off, she could barely keep her eyes open. She kept herself awake by sheer force of will, knowing that Wally's life depended on her.

The archer was recalling every single moment she spent with Wally, mentally smiling at some, wanting to face palm at others. Sure, he was an annoying, flirty little brat, but he had a heart as big as his stomach.

She thought about when they had first met, with him dressed in swimming shorts, beach umbrella in one hand, stretched out in front of her after tripping over his own feet. Sunglasses half-fallen from his face, while his inflatable ball was happily bouncing away in the awkward silence, he had looked up into the face of a clearly not amused Batman.

Normally, she would smirk at the memory, but now the only thing she could feel was her stomach twisting into tight knot. She was interrupted from her thoughts by Robin's voice.

"So, we are stuck in the middle of a jungle in South Africa with one gravely injured teammate, while Cadmus drones are searching for us."

"Geez, thanks, I hadn't noticed," said Artemis sardonically, before she was stopped by junior the version of the batglare. Even though it came from a thirteen year old, it was still pretty intimidating.

"That means we must find some food and shelter immediately," Robin continued. "So we can help Kid Flash. We have no time to lose."

"You want to keep carrying him around on your back or what?"

"Artemis, please stop being sarcastic, you're really not helping me. By hiding here we gained just a few extra minutes before the drones find us. When they don't found any bodies, they will assume that we managed to escape and they will expand their search radius to try and find us. We need to keep moving and try to find a place where they can't find us and to contact the rest of the Team to pick us-" he suddenly stopped and turned his head to the direction they came from.

Artemis knew when it's better not to ask and just trust Robin, so she did the same. She concentrated on blocking out the noises of the jungle, but she couldn't hear anything else than her harsh breathing.

After a few seconds, Robin hurriedly turned back to her and started speaking in a calm but quick voice.

"I can hear the drones coming towards us. Quick, we mustn't lose any more time. Help me with Kid." Robin bends down to Wally, carefully grabbing his shoulders and slightly raised him. Wally's head was hanging limply. Artemis caught his waist and helped to put Kid Flash on Robin's back. She arranged him so that he could carry Wally easier. Finally Robin made sure Wally's leg wasn't twisted at some weird angle before he turned to Artemis and nodded. "Let's go."

They immediately started running at a quick but persistent pace. By now, the archer could already hear the almost unrecognizable vibrations that the drones emitted to propel themselves through the humid, stifling air.

She looked at Robin loping next to her with Wally bouncing on his back. The ninja was stubbornly looking to the ground in front of him, focusing only on his breathing, lightly leaping over fallen little branches and avoiding larger groups of dry, rustling leaves.

The blonde was so occupied with watching how Robin was doing that she completely failed to notice a protrusion in the terrain before her. Her right ankle twisted the moment she stepped on the hidden tree stump, rotting underneath the leaves. She hissed in surprise at the sharp, but not unbearable pain that erupted in her ankle.

She silently swore under her breath, cursing that goddamned tree. Luckily, it was only a light sprain and not a torn ligament or fracture. Probably the only luck that smiled on them during their failed mission so far. To the most of the people, it wouldn't seem like luck, but she knew that things could get far worse. The pain would subside in few minutes, and in the meantime she still could run, although her right leg was slightly buckling under her, as she was half running, half limping, next to Robin.

This sudden sound didn't go unnoticed by the drones. Like the machines they were, all of the drones turned towards the sound, beeping like crazy. In unison, they all started flying towards where they're sensors had picked up the slight vibrations.

Before Artemis and Robin broke into a furious sprint, they spared half a second to look at each other. Artemis's eyes filled with guilt and fear and the whites on Robin's mask going wide with fear not for him, but for his teammates.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I used some information and plot from The New 52: Green Lantern: New Guardians.**

**XXX**

**In the Batcave**

Batman was sitting in the Batcave, with the batglare fixed into the eyepieces of a microscope. A bright red, still bubbling substance was placed on the microscope slate. He was trying to figure out from which chemical components the Red Lantern's blood was made of. A calm and concentrated expression had settled itself on his face, but everything beneath his façade of indifference was clamouring for him to get up and fly from the Batcave. He did not want to care about the destiny of Okaara and if it weren't for years of training, he wouldn't have hesitated for a second before burning down the entire South African jungle in the hopes of finding a boy, who was his son in every single way but by blood.

He knew it wasn't possible. Responsibility came with the job - the responsibility to sacrifice the things and the people closest to you for the sake of the greater good. This was Batman's number one rule. Bruce Wayne could go and save Dick, but Bruce Wayne wasn't at home right now. Just Batman. And Batman always stuck to his rules.

He suppressed the fatigue that was pressing against his tired eyes and concentrated on the problem at hand. He had been going three days in a row without sleep. And yet, if he tried to, he wouldn't have been able to sleep, because thoughts about Dick constantly plagued his mind.

He knew that if he wanted to protect Gotham he should be in his best shape but on the other hand, he couldn't protect Gotham if he treated himself to the regular rest his body so desperately craved. It was the curse of being Gotham's protector.

Tiredness was dulling his senses and slowing down his reflexes. He used his training from the League of Shadows, suppressed the symptoms, and focused all of his attention on the problem. He made a mental note that once the current crisis was over, he would treat himself to a long night's sleep - world disaster or not.

The Dark Knight was trying to focus on the silence in the Batcave, the one he always loved to operate him in and the one that always calmed him, but he couldn't. A certain speedster sitting in the chair next to him was tapping with his foot so quickly that it sounded like a continuous hum. Barry had to do everything else at a normal speed, because the vibrations would cause the test tube to break and ruin the little amount of samples they had.

Batman was trying to ignore him, but the more he tried to disregard that sound, the more the noise was irritating him. It was seriously affecting his ability to work.

Just before the caped crusader finally snapped at Flash, he suddenly stopped mid-movement and stared into nothingness for a few seconds. The gears, turning at top speed, inside of his brilliant, analytical mind was almost visible.

He quickly turned back to his microscope without saying a single word to Flash. The speedster was so focused on his own microscope that he didn't even notice Batman's slight movement. If possible, it seemed as if his foot was vibrating even faster now.

After a few seconds, a victorious grin appeared on Batman's face. Not a genuine smile, just a slightly triumphant grin. He was Batman after all and had to keep his mask of seriousness at all times.

He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard. For the uninitiated person, all the keys seemed the same, but Batman had a unique system built in that only he and few others understood. A diagram of some molecule appeared on a big holographic screen.

Batman gently bumped Flash, who was so absorbed in his work that he hadn't even noticed that Batman had already reached a conclusion. Flash was so tense that the tiny movement cause him to lose concentration and accelerate his actions. His vibrating fingers shattered the test tube he was holding in his hand and the red liquid exploded towards his face. Luckily, with his reflexes increased to their highest capacity, he was able to dodge it with ease.

An expression of infinite guilt immediately flashed across his face. "That was my last sample." Flash looked completely devastated.

"Barry, look at me," Gotham's protector ordered and the white lenses on Flash's cowl finally met those of Batman. "I solved it."

Flash visibly relaxed and composed himself. He finally saw the hologram hovering in mid-air. "What do you have?"

The Caped Crusader magnified a certain part of the molecule and started to explain in a calm and indifferent voice, the complete opposite to how he was feeling inside.

"This atom here is selenium. It's a semiconductor. It activates when light shines on it." Flash impatiently nodded and gestured for Batman to continue. He was a forensic scientist; obviously, he knew how selenium worked. Batman acknowledged the fact and magnified another part of the molecular structure.

"This element is unknown to Earth, but according to my calculations, this element causes reactions between particular colours of the Lantern spectrum. From what Jordan explained to me, this element is the cause to why his ring is ineffective against the colour yellow and how a Blue Lantern's light boosts up a Green Lantern's ring and so forth. All Lanterns, except Red, have this element located in their rings, but the Red Lantern rings are connected with their blood, so naturally the element appears there. Selenium reacts only with white light, but in combination with this alien element, selenium reacts only with White Lantern light. And there is only one Lantern in the entire universe who has the potential to become a White Lantern, and that is-"

"Kyle Rayner," Flash finished for him, comprehension dawning onto him with a smile.

Batman nodded and continued. "Luckily for us, he has now completed his training on the planet Zamaron with the Star Sapphires. Reaction between the White Lantern light, selenium and that alien element will create an electric current, electrocute the Red Lanterns and temporarily put them out of the fight," Before Batman had even finished his sentence, he was already on his way to the Batplane.

"We will fly back to Okaara and inform Jordan or Stewart, whichever one of them can get to Zamaron fastest."

"Wait, Bats, do you need me for this?" Flash asked with concern clearly recognizable in his voice.

Batman thought for a while before he replied, "Yes, there are still a lot of victims on Okaara and your super speed will be useful if we want to help them as fast as possible." He placed his gloved hand on Flash's shoulder and continued, "I know it's difficult..."

Batman wanted to continue, but building up morale or empathic conversations were not his strongest points, so he rather returned to his brooding personality and started flipping the controls of the Batplane, doing the last check-ups.

The Scarlet Speedster mentally sighed. He didn't want to irritate Batman, because he has known him for quite some time and was able to tell when the Dark Knight was hiding his emotions. If the Team found the others, they will definitely send a message right away. Flash knew that innocent civilians always came first, but this thought didn't help him at all. He still felt like he was abandoning Wally when the kid needs him most.

With both heroes lost in their grim thoughts, the Batplane silently rose from the ground. They flew through the open roof and headed to a little white dot in the sky that seemed peaceful at the first glance, but was currently housing one of the most brutal intergalactic conflicts of all time.


	8. Chapter 8

The adrenaline in Artemis's veins was temporarily suppressing the sharp, pulsating pain in her sprained ankle. Not that the pain wasn't there, just her brain didn't allow her to care about it right now. Every time she carelessly shifted her weight onto her injured ankle, her leg buckled a bit, but because of her momentum it was quickly replaced by her other running leg. Her hunter instincts were solely focused on the terrain passing under her boots to avoid another mishap.

Branches and bushes reached out from the gloom and slashed at every part of her body that wasn't covered by her costume. Thin red lines were left on her cheeks, arms and hands, but she couldn't care less. She shot a quick sidelong glance at Robin.

She was amazed at the grace of his movements even when carrying a passenger on his back. She always admired his skills and abilities, but now she came to realise that she has never truly seen him in action. His ninja training had been kicked up a notch or four, and he was jumping over branches and tricky places with the ease and elegance of a cat. The white lenses on his mask were narrowed to slits in focus. He wasn't panting, but his breathing was audible as he took deep breaths to deliver more oxygen to his muscles in order to endure longer run.

Still unconscious, Kid Flash was bouncing on his back in sync with Robin's leaps. If they weren't in currently running for their lives, Artemis would have laughed at how ridiculous it looked.

Unlike the heroes, the drones didn't have such difficulties. No unconscious teenagers were hanging from their backs. No sprained ankles, no bruises, no burns or cuts covered their bodies. And best of all, they could fly. Moving through the jungle was infinitely easier for the metallic machines hounding them.

Coincidently (and unfortunately), the two heroes that were stuck in this situation were the ones with no superpowers. Both heroes were only human. And no matter how long they've trained or how determined they might be to save their friend, no human, even if they were as high above the average population as Artemis and Robin were, could endure a top speed sprint for more than a few minutes. After a while, the oxygen started burning your lungs, your muscles scream from oxygen deprivation and you are forced to slow down.

The archer's breath started to catch as her aching lungs desperately tried to draw more oxygen into her body. Her attempts to breathe were becoming more and more laborious and her legs were involuntarily slowing due to growing amount of lactic acid building up in her muscle cells. She had no time to spare a look in Robin's direction, but she could hear light wheezing starting to replace his previously smooth breathing pace. He was better trained than she was for these types of situations, what with being an acrobat and patrolling the streets of Gotham, but the extra weight on his back was clearly taking its toll.

Artemis couldn't see Robin's eyes frantically scanning the surroundings as he searched for any place, anything, that could provide them with shelter against the Cadmus drones in pursuit. Branches of trees couldn't provide any cover. Hiding behind or underneath a tree trunk was so obvious that even a child would be able to find them there.

As he leapt over a particularly large piece of rotting wood, the speedster on his back bounced a little more than before and started to slowly slide from the younger teenager's back. Robin made an attempt to get a better hold of him, but he missed the lanky redhead's arm and Kid Flash fell to the ground with a soft thud, which seemed to reverberate through the silent jungle.

"Shit!" Robin cursed and stopped to retrieve his best friend from the ground. He shot a quick glance behind him to try to see how far the drones were. He couldn't see them, but the continuous vibrations from their engines filled the air. Suddenly a silver flash caught his attention.

The ninja narrowed his eyes and tried to determine what he had seen. A gentle night breeze sighed and fidgeted through the dark green jungle leaves, exposing a watery surface reflecting the silver rays of the moon hanging in the sky above.

Without a second thought, Robin made his decision. "There!" he shouted to Artemis and they half carried, half-dragged Kid Flash to the small creek. They passed behind a leafy barrier of Sideroxylon inerme just in time as the drones approached the little glade through which Robin and Artemis had been running mere seconds ago. They were uncertain if they made it to the lake unseen, but they could only hope that their luck hadn't run out entirely.

Robin quickly shoved Artemis into the clear water. She barely had time gulp down a mouthful of air. He gently grabbed Kid Flash by the waist and pulled him along with himself into the lake. The water wasn't freezing, but it wasn't warm either since they were nearer to the West Coast than the South. Although Robin's costume had isolating layer, goose bumps appeared on his arms. He could already see the dim red lights of the drones' cameras through the veil of leaves as they frantically searched for the heroes' trail that had suddenly disappeared.

The ebony haired teen tried to regulate his still quick and superficial breathing, before taking one final breath and diving into the murky water, pulling Kid Flash with him. The surface rippled slightly as it closed over their heads.

After almost drowning three missions in a row, Robin decided to carry two artificial gills in his utility belt instead of one. To hell with trying to be prepared, he still didn't have enough for them all. From now on, he's going to carry artificial gills for everyone in the Team (excluding Aqualad), plus three ones extra.

He shoved one into the speedster's mouth. There was no debate about that. In his current condition, Kid Flash needed it even more than usual. Robin pressed his friend's nostrils close so he wouldn't breathe the water in through his nose and pressed the other artificial gills to Artemis's mouth before she could argue. She did try, but at least only in hand gestures, because she couldn't talk, obviously.

Once the gills were pressed to a person's mouth, it couldn't be taken out unless the person emerged from the water. This meant that the gills couldn't be shared, but on the other hand, a villain couldn't rip them out during an underwater fight and leave you to drown. In this situation, however, there was no upside for Robin.

He could hold his breath for quite a long period of time. How could he not after all of the strenuous training Batman forced him to endure? His lungs still weren't developed to an adult's capacity, but still, after all the hours spent training holding his breath in the icy pool hidden beneath the Manor, he could hold his breath for an average of 5 minutes. That wasn't too bad for a thirteen-year-old teenager. It actually was a pretty good score; it was longer than the average adult's was. But now, with Lady Luck having turned away from them, Robin's body was still paying off the previous oxygen debt. Robin did a few quick calculations and worked out that in this condition, he could last about two minutes.

He frowned. With their luck, the drones would find them there precisely when his instincts won't let him hold his breath anymore and his own brain betrayed him by forcing him above the water's surface and into revealing their hideout.

Robin opened one of his utility belt's pockets and pulled out a tiny, collapsible periscope. He carefully expanded it and inconspicuously pushed one end of it through the surface and controlled it to aim into the direction they came from. He pressed the other end to his right eye. What he saw didn't look too good.

Cadmus drones were already searching around the leaves and slowly approaching the lake. If they came near enough, the drones would surely spot them. Even with the water acting as a reflective mirror, it wouldn't hide them entirely. He ignored Artemis tapping on his shoulder, wanting to look through the periscope too, but instead he quickly disassembled the periscope and gestured for the archer to dive lower.

An unpleasant pressure started to settle itself in his lungs and neck, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He could make it at least another minute. Artemis was watching him with concern. Robin stared up at the sky through the water. It was a full moon that night. Normally, it would be romantic and stuff, but that night the eerie light casted a foreboding light over their hiding place.

Robin's vision started to blur as the need for air grew, but he knew he couldn't emerge because the drones would find them.

The pressure on his lungs was still mounting and it was starting to feel like his head was going to explode. Every nerve, every cell, in his body yelled at him to swim up as long while he still could; before it's too late. His unyielding will refused to budge and barked at his nerves to shut up with an even louder voice.

'Better just me than all of us,' was the last thought that flashed through his mind, before it simply started making dumb observation due to the lack of oxygen. Robin was looking at a shoal of fish swimming around them. He smiled serenely, like a little kid, as a last few, precious bubbles escaped from his lips.

Artemis shook him, pulled at him and tried to swim to the surface. Her face was so angry that Robin could only imagine what she would have been yelling at him if it weren't for the artificial gills stuffed into her mouth. 'You idiot! If you drown here, Wally will die! If you die, you can't help any of us!' With the last bit of his strength, he halted her progress to the surface, shook his head and pointed upwards.

She saw black shadows dance across the image of the big, round moon. It took her a second to realise that a school of fish were swimming above them, creating the shadow and effectively distorting the drones' view of them.

Robin drifted on the very brink of consciousness, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. He heard that drowning was one of the most awful deaths, but it wasn't… this wasn't... it was… beautiful. He was floating, weightless. His hair waved around his face and tickled his neck. He felt no pain and he had never felt so happy in his entire life.

Now, instead of darkening, everything was bathed in a beautiful, otherworldly light. Every detail was sharp and colourful. Every stone, every scale on every fish, was extremely vivid. All he wanted to do was embrace the light and merge with it.

He raised his arm to touch the light. But his arm wouldn't go into the light; instead, it was being pulled up, along with his entire body. As he was being moved away from the light, darkness was consuming him. He wanted to fight, to break free and touch the light. The light felt familiar somehow.

It felt… like home.

A form started taking shape inside of the light. He knew that form…

Suddenly everything became cleared. With wide eyes, he stared into familiar blue orbs. "Mom? Mom!" he shouted with the last oxygen he had left in his lungs.

Loving eyes, filled with tears, looked at him. A soft, ethereal voice whispered, "I love you."

Robin made one last attempt to break free of his captor, but his body was paralyzed. Filled with infinite sorrow, he let the darkness envelope him.

The next thing Robin remembered was lying on the wet ground, getting a painful smack on his back and violently coughing out masses of water and throwing up anything that was left in his stomach.

He gasped in wonderful, life-giving air. The feeling was incredible - indescribable. Only those who survived drowning knew how it felt. He gluttonously took a few more breaths before throwing up once again.

Then he noticed Artemis kneeling next to him, prepared to give him another one of her "tender" smacks. He stopped her by a small wave of his hand. He rolled onto his back and for a few exquisite moments, simply enjoyed the feeling of being alive.


	9. Chapter 9

_"What?" _Red Arrow snapped at what was left of the Team after Aqualad told him what had happened._ "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" _In all the muddle, they went through, they totally forgot about Roy. Not that anyone could blame them.

Before Aqualad could answer Roy's question, the archer stopped him with a hand gesture. "No, that was a rhetorical question. It's not important. What is important is to get to them as fast as we can," Without waiting for the others, he took off to the bioship.

Superboy smiled. It was one of his rare genuine smiles. Finally, someone understood what should be done. Action, not long debates! He immediately followed Red Arrow. Kaldur and M'gann exchanged silent glances, before they followed too.

XXX

**3 hours later, above South African forests**

Miss Martian was concentrating on manoeuvring the bioship to its landing, whilst Red Arrow and Aqualad were debating about the last details concerning the mission and Superboy just had that thousand-yard-stare.

The Bioship landed as softly as a butterfly flapping its wings. For a second, there was perfect peace, a sweet silence completing one another with soft sounds of jungle nightlife.

Aqualad took a deep breath and tried to focus on the silence in an attempt to calm his mind, but was almost immediately interrupted by Superboy rising from his seat and walking over to the exit doors. His steps were loudly echoing throughout the bioship. He threw one impatient glance over his shoulder and M'gann, who seemed to have just woken up from a trance, sent a mental command to the bioship and the doors slid opened.

The cold, humid air hit them instantly and filled their lungs with its suffocating presence. They all stepped out from the bioship and moonlight illuminated their faces.

They silently walked to the titanium-reinforced doors. Without slightest hint of a warning, Superboy suddenly let out a loud roar that sounded even more intense in the quiet night and kicked the door open with one mighty kick. A flock of birds took off from the treetops and the sky sounded with their indignant shrieks.

Red Arrow suppressed the urge to face palm when Superboy turned back to them with the so-what-the-doors-are-open look. They wait a while, and when nothing came forward to respond to the loud boom, they simply shrugged their shoulders and walked in. They immediately felt the difference between the humid air outside and the air-conditioned air on the inside.

Aqualad gestured to M'gann to establish a mind link in case somebody was inside. She nodded, closed her eyes for a second, concentrated and when she opened them again, they were shining with a green alien glow, which soon faded.

_"Link established"_ she informed, and they silently started to move forward, searching in every room, looking for any clues that would help them find their missing teammates. No humming of machines could be heard, but they were all still searching, their faces filled with determination.

After a few tens of minutes, they finally found something that looked quite promising. A door similar to the titanium one that guarded the entrance. Everyone looked at Superboy. He didn´t wait for anybody's command. He merely took a few steps away from the door, started running and crashed into the door with his shoulder. The door instantly gave way under the pressure and fell off its hinges.

Superboy, surprised that the door went out so easily, flew with momentum into the room, only to collide with a surprised scientist, who had been sitting in the middle of the room in a swivelling chair, legs on a table. When Superboy busted into the room, the scientist was just taking a mouthful of doughnut. When Superboy's reflexes kicked in at the sight of an unknown, possible hostile, person, he caught the scientist in his half run, half fall across the room, and pinned him to the opposite wall. Now, the scientist looked extremely comical with his feet dangling above the ground and his face stuffed like a hamster. He was still clutching the remains of his doughnut and his eyes were so wide it looked like they were going to pop out any second.

No one had enough patience right then to even attempt to interrogate him, so M'gann reached out with her mind to that of the scientist. She disregarded the notion to be gentle, but applied just enough pressure to get answers quickly and not cause any harm to the scientist's memories. With all-seeing eyes, she searched the man's mind with a fine-tooth comb, looking for the slightest hint as to where their friends had gone.

In the meantime, Red Arrow glanced around the room. It was full of holographic screens, each displaying a moving jungle as the cameras flew through it. Roy could sometimes get a glimpse of the other cameras, when they moved to see each other. They looked like little flying pyramids. He wanted to browse through the older records, but Miss Martian was faster.

She finished her mind scan and her eyes stopped glowing green, now just glowing with sheer delight. _"They're alive! These cameras are chasing them all across the jungle outside, and if they are able to move, it means they're okay! But why..."_ She stopped in the middle of her mental sentence, her eyes glowed green again, as she searched for confirmation to her suspicions.

When she finished her probing, her face was filled with confusion. _"We were the targets in the first place. Cadmus wanted us three for tests, and they knew that Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis would come looking for us, so they wanted to get rid of them. They wanted to study our alien or different race physiology. Cadmus wanted to kill them, but they failed, and now they're trying to finish them off, because they know that we will come for them and so they can get us! This is a trap!"_ Her mental voice kept speeding up and rose with panic. Fear radiated towards her teammates through the mind link.

Superboy looked at the scientist, whom he had previously thrown to the ground. Noticed by nobody, the scientist was already half way back to the control panel. Superboy stalked towards the scientist, his vision filling with red.

Realizing that the Team's attention had swivelled back to him, the scientist broke into a desperate sprint. Superboy roared and launched himself at him. Just before Superboy knocked him down, he was able to press the red button on the table.

Superboy sensed something whistling past his ear, but missed when he tried to catch it. With an uneasy feeling, he turned back to the scientist. A syringe, full of a radiant blue liquid, was emptying itself into the scientist's neck. He slowly backed away and watched what was happening.

Superboy and Aqualad knew what was going to happen, as they had both seen it before. The scientist fell to his knees as spasms rippled through his body. His muscles bulged out, ripping his white lab coat. His skin was shredding open to reveal naked muscle underneath.

A new Blockbuster emerged. Before anyone could react, he shot one of his giant hands forward, hitting the unsuspecting M'gann. She flew across the entire room before she hit the opposite wall and fell to the ground, unmoving.

Superboy was stuck between the urge to go check on her and to beat Blockbuster to a pulp. The latter won. If nobody defeated Blockbuster, he could do something worse to M'gann and that was something Conner wouldn't tolerate.

Superboy channelled his anger, propelled himself onto Blockbuster, and started throwing one super strength punch after another. None of them was even able to wind his enemy. All of them were met with mocking amusement. That pissed him off even more, but no matter how many force he put into one punch, it was still as effective as throwing peas at an iron wall.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, a more strategic way of fighting was taking place. Red Arrow was aiming an explosive arrow at Blockbuster, but seeing how quickly they both moved, it was quite likely that he would hit Superboy instead. Plus, it didn't seem as if it would do the creature any harm.

He caught a side glimpse of Aqualad, waiting with his water-swords pulled out, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. After thinking for a second, he shot his arrow harmlessly to the ground. From the place of impact a cloud of thick smoke erupted, billowing out into the room. This didn't go unregistered by the smoke detectors, and suddenly strong currents of water were pouring from the ceiling.

"Thank you, my friend,_"_ came the reply, as a huge water vortex emerged from the middle of the room and entrapped Blockbuster inside, separating him from Superboy. Strong lower currents were trapping his legs, so he could stand, and upper currents were blocking him from emerging from the water.

Everything fell into silence, interrupted only by Superboy's hard breathing and the swirling of the water. Bubbles of oxygen swirling through the water ruined their view. Only a black mass could be seen inside battling with the intangible opponent. Slowly but surely, the black mass was slowing down, and after a few seconds, the movement ceased completely. Aqualad wasn't sure if Blockbuster was merely pretending or actually unconscious, so he kept the vortex up for two more minutes. When no movement occurred, Aqualad slowly dropped the vortex.

That was a big mistake. As soon as the vortex was down, an unharmed Blockbuster jumped for Aqualad, with teeth gritted and water drops splashing from him in every direction, He caught the hero completely off guard. He knocked him down with his immense body weight and pressed him to the ground with his big paw.

Aqualad, with the wind knocked out of him, couldn't do anything as he helplessly watched Blockbuster's head getting closer. The monster's big hand was pressed to his torso with great pressure, bruising his ribs. He could barely breathe.

Red Arrow didn't wait for anything. He drew an electric arrow out from his quiver and aimed. A target as big as Blockbuster was kind of hard to miss. He confidently aimed at Blockbuster's torso and with aplomb, released the arrow. It flew straight at the place he aimed, but Blockbuster, having his senses enhanced, spotted the arrow in his peripheral vision. With inhuman speed, he hoisted Aqualad from the ground and placed him right in the arrow's path.

Bright flames spluttered from the tip of the arrow and coiled around the Atlantean's body as he wriggled to get away from the heat. Luckily, the water from the ceiling drowned the fire quickly, but the damage had been done, leaving his body limp. Blockbuster tossed him back towards Red Arrow, and knocked them both to the ground.

Superboy, now having a free field of activity jumped on Blockbuster again. His punches were shattering the entire building, but not even tickling Blockbuster. Superboy was caught up in a blinding rage and didn't even consider stopping to think of a clever way to defeat him, so he continued to fight with the only way known to him.

Blockbuster was ignoring him for a while, letting Superboy to punch him in the chest several times. A mocking smile split across his face, before he grew tired of him, and with one simple move caught his head and lifted Superboy from the ground. Superboy continued to punch, but now it had no affect at all since Blockbuster was also keeping Superboy from touching him. It was embarrassing. It made him even angrier. He roaring with fury, but Blockbuster was simply too strong for him.

As if he was swatting at an annoying fly, Blockbuster pitched Superboy onto the human tangle consisting of a still unconscious Aqualad and Roy, trying to aim another arrow at Blockbuster. He let the arrow fly mere seconds before Superboy landed on top of him.

Blockbuster, acclimating to more of his new powers caught the arrow mid-flight. He looked shocked at the arrow for a moment, then let out an amused laugh. It was the first time they heard Blockbuster make any sound. It was creepy, the heroes were getting goose bumps all over their bodies as the laughter ascended and descended in its intensity. Then it was suddenly cut of mid-chuckle as the top of the arrow flew open and Blockbuster was covered in solidifying foam that filled his mouth and coated his entire body.

The look on his face was priceless. Roy regretted not having his mobile phone with him. The face he was making was so ridiculous that he would have laughed out loud at him if the creature hadn't tried to kill them all a few seconds ago.

Blockbuster spent a few moments in surprised silence with a comical look on his face, before letting out an ear-piercing cry, and with one powerful tightening of his muscles, he tore through what was supposed to be the untearable.

In this monstrous mindless state, Blockbuster jumped towards Roy, caught the fabric of his costume and lifted him from the ground. Roy's legs were helplessly dangling above the ground. His bow was left on the ground with his quiver. Thought, it wasn't like any of his arrows could possibly harm Blockbuster either way.

Roy braced for the impact he knew was going to come. Blockbuster was already holding out his giant fist that will most likely rip off Roy's head. What a shame.

He felt completely at peace, dying as he tried to help save his friends. He just hoped Rob, Wally and Arty would get far enough to save themselves. Blockbuster's muscles tensed. Roy knew the punch was coming. He closed his eyes. His last thought was: _I hope my blood at least mucks up your legs, motherfucker._


	10. Chapter 10

Robin was sitting on the ground next to the pool he almost drowned in, trying to get over the events of the past few hours. Now, as he was looking back at it with his mind clear, he knew he probably hadn't seen his dead mother's spirit. It was just a comforting illusion his brain (zonked with the lack of oxygen) created to make dying more comfortable and acceptable.

Robin had already accepted the fact that he will never ever see his parents again a long time ago. It just wasn't possible. It happened, and it cannot be changed. Life goes on. He isn't the only orphan on this planet, and all of them have to get up and deal with it, no matter what. Even though he was living in a world full of miracles, nobody could bring his parents back to life. At least none of the good guys.

A world full of miraculous people with miraculous powers. And one of them was dying right next to him. He shook his head trying to focus his mind on their current problem. _"Fucking snap out of it,"_ he said to himself. _"Your best friend is dying and you're sitting here, looking like a dumbfuck and thinking about things long lost!"_

Robin never swore. It was one of the first things Batman taught him whilst he was re-educating him. He even made sure Robin didn't swear when communicating through M'gann's mindlink. But here, nobody could hear his thoughts.

Once again, he regained his composure before turning to Artemis, who was attending Wally. She was splinting his bones in place with some bamboo sticks and lianas, but there wasn't much she could do for him.

Robin wanted to ask her how Wally was, but the silent trembling of her shoulders stopped him. He wanted to comfort her, tell her that everything would be fine but with little to no shock realized that it probably wouldn't be. After all, they were stuck in the middle of the unknown with no food, a gravely injured comrade and with no way to contact their teammates. He wanted to hug her as a friend, to show her that at least she didn't have to suffer with her thoughts alone, but then decided not to. Artemis was a proud woman, she wouldn't want anyone to see or acknowledge her in this state.

Artemis silently wiped away a rebellious tear that escaped her eye. Lying in front of her wasn't the playboy Baywatch anymore. Instead of seeing a careless child, she saw a friend that had saved her and Robin from certain death in the flames of the explosion. Idiot or not, she couldn't hate him.

She swallowed another wave of tears that came rushing to her eyes and hid any remainder of tears on her voice before she interrupted the silence between them.

"What now?" It was more of a statement than an actual question. If Robin had some brilliant escape plan like he usually did, then he would have tried it out already. This wasn't the kind of situation where his troll side could take all the pleasure from getting into some problem and then save everyone at the last minute, only to laugh his ass off later on at everyone's expressions.

"I honestly don't know."

Both of them knew the answer even before the question was asked but it still hurt to hear it. It was like the last pieces of hope fading away - dispersing out into space. Sure, they wouldn't just dig their own graves, tell each other goodbye, bury themselves and die. But even if they continued on their aimless march through the unforgiving jungle, they were more likely to find polar bears dancing and singing Gangnam Style on an iceberg whilst drinking Martinis from coconut shells than a way home.

Artemis sighed. The end was near. The weight of accepting her fate filled her soul and eyes.

"We must move," she told him, suddenly sounding very calm.

Robin understood that. No matter what the circumstances were, there was no way in the entire freaking multiverse that she would give up. No matter how many times they were defeated or how horrible their injuries were, they would always stand back up and fight.

He gave a short nod before standing up. At this stage, there weren't many words needed. They understood each other perfectly - as only two friends going through hell itself could.

****Under the secret Cadmus base****

Roy braced for the impact he knew was going to come. Blockbuster was already holding out a giant fist that would most likely rip off Roy's head. What a shame.

He felt completely at peace. He was dying whilst trying to help save his friends. Was there any better way to go?

Roy just hoped Rob, Wally and Arty would get far enough to save themselves.

Blockbuster's muscles tensed. Roy knew the punch was coming. He closed his eyes, thinking,_ I hope my blood at least mucks up your legs, motherfucker._

He heard the swish of the massive fist cutting through air. He flinched at the thought of how much it will hurt but then realized that the fist was more likely to smash his brain even before he could feel the pain. Then his brain would splash everywhere; mixed with blood and spinal fluid, creating an awful stench that would stay on Blockbuster's clothes forever. Unfortunately, also on the clothes of his friends. __Sorry guys.__

As he was thinking these grim thoughts, he realized that the punch hadn't connected. He dared to open one eye and then the other. Blockbuster's fist was frozen mere centimeters from his face. Before Roy could wonder why, Blockbuster suddenly flew into air and stayed there. Behind him stood Miss Martian with her hand outstretched and the green glow in her eyes.

XXX

Robin and Artemis were on the move. They didn't have any particular direction in mind. They simply felt they had to do something and not give up and await their inevitable destinies in one place.

Artemis now carried Wally. Robin was still exhausted after the long, mindless run and then almost drowning. Besides, she spent years training with a bow and her shoulders were far more muscular than Robin's. But still, she was exhausted too, and visibly limping. If Robin hadn't known that this was personal for Artemis, his pride and the manners Alfred had ingrained in his very essence would have taken over and he's be the one carrying his best friend. Everyone in the Team could sense the feelings between the two except them themselves. Wally was simply to blind and stuck in his ways. And Artemis was a tsundere - too proud to admit her feelings in front of anyone including herself.

Artemis was getting really tired. She knew the speedster ate a lot, but with his lanky frame he was a lot heavier then she anticipated. But she no longer cared. As the possibility of failure drew nearer, she just wanted to spend Wally's last moments with him. Both heroes walked in silence, having no energy to speak even if they could find the words.

Just as she felt her body starting to give up against her will, she heard the soft rustle of leaves next to her. Then, something heavy crashed into her head. Her vision blurred, then turned into pitch-black darkness and she knew no more.

In his fatigued state, Robin could only watch the scene unfold with a sluggish sense of dread, before meeting the same fate.


	11. Chapter 11

_Previously:_

_As he was thinking these grim thoughts, he realized that the punch wasn't coming. He dared to open one eye, then the other. Blockbuster's fist was frozen mere centimetres from his face. Before Roy could wonder why, Blockbuster suddenly flew into air and hovered there. Behind him, Miss Martian stood with her hand raised and a green glow in her eyes._

Roy finally relaxed. Just a few seconds ago, he was quite sure that this is the end for him. With the heavy weight no longer on him, he quickly regained his cool, rose to his feet and brushed off some invisible piece of dust from his clothes. His other teammates were slowly regaining their composure too and were joining him, their attention turned towards their green Martian friend.

M'gann had had just enough. The beast in front of her had hurt her, her teammates and most importantly, it was probably behind the assault on her three friends that were missing as well. She never even considered going easy on him. She would make him feel the same pain he makes everyone else feel. No! Even worse! A lot worse! So he would never again think of doing something like this again!

With a slight snarl, the hand she held in a tight fist burst open and her eyes started glowing brighter. Blockbuster started to roar in immense agony. Everyone except for Miss Martian, who seemed to be in some sort of trance, instinctively crouched at the unearthly yell. The sound was making goose bumps appear on everybody's skin and sent chills down their spines as the sound continued to echo through the room, ripping at everyone's eardrums.

Blue-ish, shining liquid slowly oozed out from Blockbuster's eyes, nose and ears and began to form in a sphere in front of Miss Martian. Although the sound's intensity already seemed impossibly high, this caused Blockbuster to yell even louder. As the fluid left his body, he began to shrink down back to his original scientist form. His white coat and shirt were shredded to the point that it was unrecognizable to the concept clothes. The only thing left completely unchanged was his trousers. But what was worst were the scientist's muscles. The rapid increase and then decrease of their mass caused them to be shredded, leaving massive bleeding bruises all over his body.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of torture, all the liquid was outside of his body and the scientist collapsed to the ground, catatonic and bleeding profusely. The fluid was shaped into a little shining ball in front of Miss Martian, pulsing slightly. She made a subtle move with her hand that caused the ball to explode into hundreds of tiny droplets dispersing across the room, leaving a fairy dust-like trail behind them before colliding with the solid objects in the room. The whole scene looked like some bizarre paintball aftermath – bright reds, dark browns and luminescent blue.

M'gann's eyes finally stopped glowing and she put her hand down. Then she turned to her shocked teammates with a cheery smile. "He won't be bothering us anymore," she told them happily and walked back to the monitors. The others were slowly recovering from the initial shock and followed her warily.

Until this moment, none of them had realized how powerful M'gann actually was. It was terrifying to see someone being put down like this with little to no effort. Combined with M'gann's lack of knowledge about Earth's customs and culture, she may not even realize how severe a thing it was what she did. Superboy knelt down next to the scientist and looked into his empty eyes and drooling mouth. He decided that once they have some privacy, he would have to talk to M'gann about that.

Not because he felt something like pity towards the scientist. Definitely not. He had long ago developed a burning hate towards Cadmus after his short stay with them, but this just wasn't right. Sure, M'gann stuck with their no-kill policy - the man wasn't dead after all - but his current state wasn't that different from death. In fact, it was a lot worse of a punishment.

Red Arrow was already typing something into the central computer, carefully analysing the information. Fortunately, the power source and hardware were still intact and the central screen escaped with a few minor scratches and a hairline crack across its centre. The other screens hadn't been as lucky, but they were not of any importance.

Roy was fast with computers and by then, he had gathered all of the important data. The thought stung him when he realized that if Robin had been with them, they would have hacked and downloaded everything in no time, set up some clever troll viruses to the web, perhaps create a backdoor into Cadmus's systems and he would still have time left to mock Roy about how everything is taking him so long.

At least now they knew where their friends were last seen, Roy thought when he finally found the right frequency for the drones patrolling the area. There was nothing that could stop them now. Without waiting any further, all of them quickly left. The picture of a little abandoned lake was frozen on the screen when the last person shut the door behind them.

XXX

Robin was drifting in and out of consciousness. Every time he started fidgeting and tried to open his eyes, a firm bang to the head returned him to unconsciousness. Whoever was responsible for these trips to Lala-land clearly did not know the pure pig-headedness of the teenager. Robin was the master of being stubborn – he had to be if he wanted to deal with the likes of Batman. And of course, he learned from his mistakes.

This time, he was cautious. He focused on the sounds around him. From the slight rustling of leaves and the cacophony of chirps and whistles from birds and insects, he figured he was still in the jungle. But he had no idea who ambushed them. He tried to focus on that steady move under him. It was as if someone was carrying him and yet… it wasn't. Something about the movement felt off, just not normal.

He made his body completely limp and opened his eyes a tiny bit. He couldn't see much due to the fact that it was dark still (or dark again?) and he couldn't risk opening his eyes any more. He got a faint glimpse of a blonde ponytail a few meters before him and even further ahead he spotted a few tufts of orange hair.

His gaze started to clear and he could see better in the semi-dark. When the scene in front of him finally came into focus and his woozy brain puzzled the picture together, he couldn't quite stop the gasp and instinct to try to pull back. However minuscule the sound and tightening of muscles were, it didn't go unnoticed by his captors. They hit him once again, harder this time to make sure he didn't wake up for the rest of their journey.

XXX

The Team plus Roy minus Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis quickly got to the lake. They cautiously neared the seemingly peaceful scene. There was no obvious signs that anything had happened there. Well, no obvious signs to the untrained eye.

After a quick examination, Aqualad pointed out the drenched ground beside the lake and the bent grass next to it. It was quite obvious that someone or something had tried to smooth over the scene to cover their tracks. Somebody must have been in the lake and then continued on into the surrounding jungle.

Not wasting any time, Kaldur and Roy took point. There wasn't anything as evident like footprints to follow, but they lead the rest of the team along the bent grass and cracked twigs.

Superboy covered their backs, bringing up the rear. He couldn't help but wish they had brought Wolf with them. Things would have gone a lot faster then, but luckily the tracks were fresh, and none of them doubted that they would soon meet up with their teammates. Although everyone was silent, their hope-filled gazes spoke loud enough.

Then the tracks suddenly ended.


	12. Sorry To Disappoint You

_Many months later_

"Hello everyone!"

"M´gann, who are you talking to? We´re right here."

"I´m talking to the readers of this story Robin."

"The readers of the story? What readers? What story? What is happening?"

"Calm down Wally. I was just telepathically contacted by the creator of this story, Mary Allen, and she wanted me to deliver a few messages for her readers."

"Allen? Like my uncle?"

"No, she´s from different dimension, it´s impossible that those two are related. Anyway, straight to the messages. One: CALM DOWN THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER."

"Ouch, that was harsh."

"It had to be. But the second message is even w-worse."

"Pssht M´gann, don´t cry, it will be alright."

"N-no, it won´t. She says that her interests shifted far away from us and she doesn´t intend to finish the story. She blames it on being a Gemini, but I know it´s only because she doesn´t likes us."

"That´s nonsense, who wouldn´t like us?"

"Apparently she doesn´t, otherwise she wouldn´t torture us so much on that mission in South Africa."

"True, I still have goosebumps when I think of how close to death we were back then."

"And if she doesn´t finish the story, we can´t move on into this present! This will cause the time-spatial continuum to collapse and we will be forever stuck in that jungle, frozen in time, and our current lives will be deleted."

"That´s horrible! We must assure it never happens. Is there any way we can stop this?"

"Hello Megan! She said that she could hand the story over to some other fan who would finish it instead of her. She didn´t ended writing our story out of writer´s block so she has our story planned to the last detail if anybody would want to write but didn´t have ideas."

"But we know how our story ended, why can´t we just say how it ended and get over it?"

"Because that would be spoiler and her last wish before she leaves us for good was to torture all the people reading this with anticipation and eagerness."

"Geez, that girl is really a sadist."

"It was really cruel of her to leave her fans with _two_ cliffhangers in _one_ chapter and just go off."

"So, everyone, if you want to continue writing this story instead of Mary, PM her. If there are more people, they can either cooperate or she will read their fanfics and decide who would be the best successor."

"Why did she even made a weird chapter like this, couldn´t she just tell them directly?"

"No Connor, she couldn´t, because it´s forbidden in her dimension to post chapters consisting only of Author´s Notes."

"Yeah, so if anyone will report her, I will run an arrow right straight through him, because we really want our story to be continued."

"So please, save us if you want to see how we get over all the difficulties."


	13. Chapter 12

**This chapter is my birthday present for you...**

**Few organizational things:**

**1\. I´ll be stopping with ANs. I read back and I find them unnecessary and distracting from the story. I´ll delete this one too, I just wanted you to know why I´m not writing them anymore.**

**2\. Contrary to that, I´ll try to make my chapters longer from now on.**

**3\. Yes, this is me. The person I tried to give this to fell and injured her head. So I concluded this story is cursed and will finish it myself.**

**4\. Please bear with me. Due to my long inactivity I forgot some things I intended to do with this so there might be some inconsistencies. Do not be afraid to point them out so I can work with them.**

**5\. Some plot from here will have references to Flash: Rebirth and comics in general. You don´t need to read them as I should explain everything as I go.**

Artemis was laying on a vertical surface, tied to it by strips of cloth. A heavy weight rested over eyes. The sensation made panic rear its ugly head, but after she quickly shot it down, opened her eyes to see tiny pinpricks of light. Artemis didn't mind handcuffs and bounding her feet rarely did anything but annoyed her, but she absolutely hated the sensation something covering her eyes.

Concentrating on keeping her breathing slow and even as to not alert possible kidnappers that she was awake, she focused on her other senses instead. The strips of cloth she was fastened to the bed with were smooth and the bed was surprisingly comfortable. This probably meant that they didn't want her damaged. There is a big difference between meaning her harm and wanting her whole. Artemis learned that the hard way. Were they planning to ransom her?

The odour she smelled was something that resembled the sharp antiseptic stench that could be found in hospitals and traces of something she couldn´t quite place... But thinking too hard about the familiarity made her head throb.

When she focused on her hearing, the crackling static of silence became almost overwhelming. Artemis strained her ears to pierce through the waterfall of nothingness, taking the risk of holding her breath for a second. There! Just on the edge of her hearing sounded like soft snore coming from somewhere in the room.

One person. So no kidnapper, but who was the other person. Was it Rob or KF? Either way, one of her teammates was missing and both weren't in the best shape. Worry made her heartbeat accelerate.

Everything felt like it was falling apart; the fabric covering her face seemed to suffocate her as she struggled to take in another breath. Corners of her eyes filled with unshed tears as her mind thought the things she would never allow.

Who might be dead?

The other person in the room apparently heard the change in her breathing pattern.

"Artemis?"

"Robin? Oh god, Robin, I'm so glad it's you. Where's Wally?"

The uncertain silence from the other side of the room only strengthened her doubts.

Before Robin could answer, there was a metallic snick and a door groaned open. The pinpricks of light brightened momentarily as the door closed again with a loud complaint.

She froze in anticipation of their captors' actions, calming her breathing and heartbeat once again, ready to fight or flee, should her bindings be removed. Adrenaline spilled into her veins as years of training kicked in.

"I see you're awake," the voice was deep, smooth, and whoever it was, was definitely taller than average since his voice came from quite a height. "I'm sorry that you had to be taken in under these circumstances, but we couldn't exactly afford humans knowing of this location."

Big, but gentle hands began pulling at her bindings. When she was finally free, the hands slowly pulled down the cloth she had over her face.

With a surprised shriek she barely managed to cover with a gulp, Artemis was staring with wide eyes into the black, beaded orbs, with a dominant supraorbital arc and brown hair all over. She suddenly recalled where she met that unfamiliar smell. It was back when she was little, living with her parents and sister in a small flat in Gotham. It was on one of her rare days' off.

Jade had taken her to the Gotham ZOO. The animals there reflected the spirit of the city. They were crouched in darkened corners of their cages, waiting for little children to come closer to the glass only to jump with a bloodcurdling scream at the unsuspecting child.

The worst of these were the primates, due to their intelligence being higher than the rest of the ZOO's inhabitants. The smell of dirty animals hung in the air and clung to every pore. Artemis would never forget the fear that froze her blood when she bent towards the glass to get a better view in the gorilla pavilion cage, and suddenly a fury of dishevelled fur and contorted teeth shot up towards the glass where she was standing.

Even with all her training, she jerked away, terrified out of her mind, even though only an experienced observer would have been able to tell the true extent of her fear. The gorilla had retreated to the back of its cage, disappointed with such a minute reaction while baring its teeth at her in the most disturbing manner and dully piercing her with its gaze with bloodshot eyes.

But the eyes Artemis was staring into right now were nothing like those eyes back then. They were calm and looked intelligent.

The archer forced her eyes to explore the rest of the room. There wasn't anyone else in the room; therefore, she concluded that the one speaking was the gorilla in front of her. Which wasn't exactly common but let's face the facts, she saw weirder things on a daily basis. And besides, this wasn't her first time encountering an unnervingly intelligent gorilla.

"Where are we? Where is Kid Flash?" Artemis rose to a sitting position, finally finding her voice just as the gorilla untied Robin and removed the fabric from his head. She had to hand it to him that his entire reaction to the primate in front of him only consisted of the slight widening of the whites on his mask.

"Your friend is being tended to right now. It's a very delicate procedure, one that couldn't be carried out anywhere else on the entire world. It's a ritual known to our kind. Our city has quite a history with the Flash legacy, as you will have chance to see. But enough with the explanations, do you wish to see your friend?"

Artemis was so relieved she couldn't speak and she simply nodded in response.

"Wait, Artemis," Robin warned and looked to the gorilla. "If you mean us no harm, why have you dragged us in, in such a manner?"

The gorilla seemed unphased by this question. "We are sorry it had to be this way, but we couldn't allow you to find out the location of our city. The gorillas scaring of random passer-by's around the city aren't as... intelligent as the rest of us inside. They follow orders, which was to get you safely inside without you knowing the way. They fulfilled the orders, but not in a very considerate way."

Robin was satisfied with this answer and gave a short nod in Artemis´ general direction. The gorilla in front of them turned, opened the doors and led them outside.

After a brief period of adjusting their eyes to the bright daylight, they saw a big gathering of gorillas unveiled in front of them. The first thing that Artemis noticed was the high columns decorated with mystic runes and lightning symbols all over it. At its heel, a small figure was chained. The bold combination of yellow and red couldn't be mistaken as anyone else.

"Kid Flash!" Artemis shouted and would've headed straight towards him had a strong hand on her shoulder not stopped her. She tried to shake the hand off but it held her tightly.

"The ritual hasn't begun yet. You need to be patient. We can't let you get to him right now, not after the runes have been put up."

Artemis nodded that she understood and continued to observe. Her teammate wasn't in good shape at all, he was even worse than how she remembered him if that was even possible. His uniform was torn, his head was hanging loosely, his hair was stained with blood, his skin was paler than death and some of his limbs were sticking out at odd angles.

She swallowed her unease and observed the rest of their surroundings. In the inner circle the gorillas were making, sat eight white gorillas.  
Probably the ones who are going to carry out the ritual, Artemis thought. The rest of the gorillas were waiting in the outer circles, some watching with curiosity, some quietly speaking to each other.

The gorilla standing behind them softly nudged them both and silently spoke. "It's beginning."

Artemis peeled her eyes from the buildings surrounding them and focused her sight on the inner circle. The eight white gorillas began to chant something in deep voices, the runes began to shine with inner light and clouds began to gather, forming a helical pattern.

The tension in the air grew; it felt like the calm before the storm. The air tasted like ozone. For a few seconds, as the white gorillas let the echo of their chant resonate, the air grew heavy, and static electricity caused few loose strands of hair to rise. For a few seconds, everything was drowning in loud, oppressive silence.

Then hell broke loose.

Strong, cold winds began to blow. The gorillas began to chant again, now with more speed and vigour, their voices rose and fell in time with the wind. The clouds began to swirl at a higher velocity, quickly growing in mass, and thunder with lightning stroke inside the clouds. Strong ropes of water began falling from the sky, quickly drenching everything under the clouds. The lightning began to gather in the centre of the clouds, attracted by the pulsing blood red runes on the column.

Then the runes sent out a strong pulse into the sky and the sky responded with lightning. All the lightning bolts connected to one mighty red bolt and stroke into the column with full force.

Artemis could hear a single man shouting in the distance.

* * *

They were moving like death through the jungle. Their camouflaged clothes were blending with the shadows. The only sounds they made could be passed off as nightlife in the jungle.

After the tracks disappeared, the rest of the Team were following Superboy's sense of smell. And Superboy was pretty sure whom they were following.

"I hate monkeys," he muttered under his breath.

After a few minutes of silent running, the scent got stronger. He signalled them to stop and continued with caution.

A short low growl was the only warning he got. Suddenly a 200kg of pure muscle was pinning him down and sharp teeth we're gnashing dangerously close to his face. He shouted to warn the rest of his teammates but by the sounds coming from his surroundings, they were already engaged with the rest of them.

Miss Martian managed to blast away one of the gorillas before the other one took her by surprise from behind, bringing her down from her flying position.

Aqualad was forced on the defensive by directing all the energy from his water bearers into one shield.

Red Arrow had no kind of defence and was forced to dodge and weave, narrowly missing the big apes' fists. All his attempts of shooting were halted.

Just when it looked they are going to be defeated, a strong voice ran through the air. "Stop!"

After one last threatening growl and blowing their smelly breaths into their faces, the gorillas hesitantly got off of them and lined up in front of the other gorilla.

When the Team caught their breaths and got up to defensive stances, the gorilla who seemed to be in charge, stood up in front of them with its hands turned up in the universal sign of peaceful intentions.

"I am sorry for this misunderstanding. We are not your enemies. These are our city's vanguard. They are here to scare off random civilians who might happen to pass through this area."

One of the gorillas standing beside him tried to give the Team a toothy apologetic grin, but quickly stopped when he saw their horrified expressions.

Seeing that his words had no effect and the four were still cautious, he continued: "We have found your friends."

At this, M'gann relaxed and lifted off the ground a few inches from happiness. "Really? That´s great!"

_"M'gann don´t trust them. They just attacked us, we don't know their true intentions,"_ Kaldur warned her through their mindlink.

The smile vanished from her face and she sank back to the ground.

The gorilla in front of them continued. "We found your friends lost on the outskirts of our city. They were in bad shape, but we took them in. They are currently being tended to in our city."

_"How do we know they aren't lying?"_ Superboy asked through the mindlink.

_"Simple. If they wanted to capture or kill us, they would've done it before. I don't like to admit this, but they had the advantage in our recent encounter with them. If it weren't for that new dude, we'd be human-sized gorilla tooth pics by now."_

Satisfied with Roy's answer, Kaldur turned back to the gorilla messenger and spoke for them all, "We trust you. Please lead us to our friends."

The messenger nodded and pulled out a couple of blindfolds from some hidden pockets on his body. He turned to the Team with an apologetic smile but before he could say anything, Kaldur did it for him. "It's alright, we understand your desire to want to protect your city's location."

He seemed to be relieved and proceeded with blindfolding them one by one. After he made sure they couldn't see anything, he guided them to the rest of the gorillas. They exchanged a few short words and the guards took each of them on their backs.

* * *

"Everything is prepared, sir."

"Thank you, Masamba. You may leave now."

Masamba nodded his head in subservience and proceeded to leave the office as quietly as possible.

He was left in his office alone. He rose from his chair and gazed at the city through the wall of window.

He could see the big storm clouds gathering, centring on the columns that stood out from above the city's silhouette.

A creepy smile ghosted over his lips.

"Soon..."

Blood-red thunderbolts split the skyline in two.


End file.
